Thursday morning tidbits
Good morning--hope you're enjoying your last day before the Washington metro area is once again under siege from bucketloads of snow and media hysteria. Wait, the media hysteria has already started? OK, moving on then...
Not a whole lot of Nats news to pass on this morning; we're still playing the Orlando Hudson waiting game. But I'll pass along another link from Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, who's got some insight on what the Twins are doing with regard to Hudson and Jarrod Washburn (another player I know some of you have asked about).
Christensen believes, as I do, that the Nationals have the high offer, and everyone is waiting to see when Hudson decides if the high offer is high enough.
Also, the Nationals have released their promotional schedule for 2010, and will begin selling single-game tickets on March 2. Kristen Hudak has more on the schedule in the Nats Buzz.
There are more day games on the schedule than we've seen in the past at Nationals Park, and a "Fan's Choice" bobblehead giveaway on Aug. 28.
Nats communications manager Lisa Pagano tells me there's going to be an online and in-the-park poll throughout the season for the final bobblehead choice. No word on if Stephen Strasburg will be one of the choices, or if his bobblehead will beat him to Nationals Park.
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Categories (click for archive)Ben Goessling | Nationals News |
Checking the link comments from the Minneapolis Tribune, sounds like the majority of the Twins fans are really up for the Hudson signing. I'm hoping its about the cash (as is usually the case) and he signs with the Nationals.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/02/orlando-hudson-rumors-thursday.html
Hey Ben-
We continue to read article after article of how the Nat's have improved. Hopefully the team can get out of the gate strong this season. Riggleman needs to have the National's set a new identify the first half of the season. The last couple of season's we have shown improvement after the fact. April 5th is just around the corner.....
Go Nat's!!! RR-Upstate South Carolina
Ben;
I'm now officially off the bring Hudson to DC bandwagon. If he does not sign here (its a good possibility being on a perennial 1st round playoff team means alot more to him then winning 73 games) in my opinion this is a PR set-back for Rizzo & Co goinf forward. Lets be honest, the Lerners are tone-deaf when it comes to marketing the teams image. Nothing has changed in that department. They had a golden opportunity this off-season to really create a buzz and they have once again let it slip by. Players all talk across the league, they know what teams mean to certain cities, DC just is not one of those (frankly it may never be). I'm disappointed that the same dumpster diving will continue for the fore seeable future, it frustrating. Baseball is a lot like hockey, its a grind from start to finish and its not like football, there is no draft pick that will show up on day one and make an impact, its just a fact of the game.
Oh well, hello Adam Kennedy!
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I'm not sure how big of a PR setback it will be in the long run, assuming Hudson isn't coming here (and I've heard some things indicating it's between the Twins and Indians at this point). Maybe a little bit, because the Nationals have been so forthright about wanting him, but they've made it fairly clear they weren't going to shoot for the moon on Hudson. Some of this Hudson fever fed on itself and became bigger than it needed to be. Assuming it's not happening, though, I think people will move on soon enough. You're not going to get every free agent to come here, especially when you've got a team like the Twins, who made the playoffs last year and have everybody back. Hudson fits nicely there, assuming that's where he ends up, and they could be pretty good.
Ben
Sorry not to have seen this earlier but I was out panic shopping. EEEKKK! Head for the hills! The snow is coming, the snow is coming!! Um, where was I, anyway? Oh, yeah.
Eh, whatever. How valuable could he be? Ronnie Belliard benched him (no offense, Ronnie, but dang). Would like to see us improve the defense, though.